Davila Files Protest After TKO Loss to Duarte

Albert Davila, stopped on cuts in Saturday’s bantamweight fight with Frankie Duarte, has filed an official protest with Marty Denkin, representing the state athletic commission and the North American Boxing Federation, and could gain a recommendation that the verdict be overturned.

Davila, who was winning the fight on points when it was stopped in the 10th round, claims his corner alerted referee Lou Filippo in the fourth round to an accidental head butt that opened a cut above Davila’s left eye. According to state and NABF policy, Filippo, who acknowledged the complaint, is required at that time to ask one or more judges whether there was a head butt. And if the head butt causes the fight to be stopped then or later, the decision would go to the judges’ scoring.

Denkin said Filippo failed to ask the judges at any time during the fight whether they saw a head butt, although all three judges later told Denkin they did indeed see Duarte accidentally butt Davila. According to the interpretation of those rules, the decision and Davila’s NABF title would go to Davila, who led, six rounds to three, on all three judges’ score cards.

Denkin said he will deliver his recommendation to the State Athletic Commission and the NABF within a day and said he hoped it would be acted upon “within a week.”

Should the decision be reversed, it will not be the first time. A notorious example was in 1957 in the Hollywood Legion when Carlos Ortiz was initially disqualified for hitting a fighter after the bell. That decision was overturned and Lou Filippo recorded his first loss.